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A  Summary  of  the  History  of 

San  Francisco  Theological 

Seminary 


Reverend  Edward  Arthur  Wither,  D.  D. 
T^pbert  Dollar  Professor  of  New  Testament  Interpretation 


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Fifty  Years  of  the  San  Francisco 
Theological  Seminary 


By  the  REVEREND  PROFESSOR  EDWARD  ARTHUR  WICHER,  D.  D. 


m  i£'IFTY  years  of  the  history  of  the  seminary!  Who  can  estimate 
Jl*  either  its  ultimate  or  its  present  significance?  Upon  the 
Pacific  Coast,  where  all  our  institutions  are  new,  any  school 
of  learning  which  has  attained  an  age  of  fifty  years  is  venerable. 
How  many  societies,  and  lodges,  and  chambers  of  commerce,  and 
gold  mines,  and  industrial  enterprises  have  been  started,  and  finished, 
within  that  period!  Indeed  how  many  institutions  of  higher  learn- 
ing have  been  auspiciously  inaugurated,  and  disastrously  concluded, 
in  this  time!  And  our  seminary  is  still  alive,  having  endured  all  the 
frosts  and  seasons  of  drought  which  threaten  the  existence  of  young 
plants,  and  has  now  reached  the  vigorous  health  of  the  well-grown 
tree,  which  rejoices  in  its  strength,  and  enlarges  its  girth  from  year 
to  year,  and  tosses  its  exuberant  branches  in  the  light  of  the  sun. 

And  yet,  that  we  may  frame  in  our  subject  within  its  due  limits, 
it  must  be  remarked  that  fifty  years  is  a  very  brief  portion  of  the  life 
of  a  seminary  such  as  ours.  I  have  no  doubt  but  that,  if  the  world 
lasts,  our  seminary  will  grow  to  be  as  old  as  the  oldest  of  the  colleges 
of  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  Thus  the  fifty  years  it  has  now  attained 
is  only  its  early  youth.  And  one  does  not  expect  that  youth  will  be 
productive  of  large  and  positive  achievements.  One  is  content  if  it 
be  a  period  of  normal  growth  into  sturdy  manhood. 

4G3320 


Two 


■ 

Let  it  be  frankly  stated  that  we  do  not  look  upon  the  past  ac- 
complishments of  our  seminary  as  the  perfect  work  of  adult  strength, 
but  as  the  healthy  development  of  youth  into  a  new  period  of  pro- 
ductive power.  In  other  words,  the  seminary  has  a  right  to  demand 
that  it  be  estimated  primarily  not  by  its  past  achievement,  but  by  its 
present  vitality  and  its  promise  for  the  future.  And  yet,  even  that 
achievement,  considered  in  and  for  itself,  is  not  insignificant,  as  we 
shall  hope  to  show.  Through  all  these  fifty  years  there  has  gone 
forth  from  the  seminary  into  the  community  of  the  states  of  the 
Pacific  Coast  a  steady  influence  of  strong,  clear  thinking  upon  re- 
ligious themes,  and  of  steadfast  devotion  to  Christian  ideals. 

The  history  of  the  seminary  divides  itself  naturally  into  three 
periods;  the  first  extending  from  the  date  of  the  adoption  by  the 
Synod  of  the  Pacific,  in  1871,  of  a  plan  for  the  foundation  of  a 
seminary,  down  to  the  end  of  1880,  during  which  time  all  the  pro- 
fessors were  busy  pastors,  carrying  on  the  work  of  heavy  parishes 
and  giving  of  their  time  gratuitously  to  the  needs  of  the  newly 
founded  school  of  the  prophets;  the  second  period  extending  from 
the  receipt  of  the  first  endowment,  that  of  the  Stuart  Chair,  down  to 
the  opening  of  the  present  seminary  buildings  in  San  Anselmo,  in 
1892;  the  third  period  extending  from  the  last  named  date  to  the 
present.  Each  of  these  periods  has  its  own  tale  of  vicissitudes  and 
hardships,  of  hopes  raised  only  to  be  dashed  again,  of  other  hopes 
brought  to  a  glorious  fruition,  of  steady  patience  in  defeat,  and  of 
courage  that  finally  triumphed  over  all  difficulties.  We  will  pass  in 
review  the  chief  events  and  personages  in  each  of  these  three  periods, 
dwelling  at  greatest  length  upon  the  earliest.  It  is  fitting  that  at  this 
time  we  should  pay  our  highest  honors  to  our  faithful  and  heroic 
dead,  the  pioneers  of  our  church  upon  this  western  shore,  the  found- 
ers of  the  institution  within  whose  walls  we  find  our  shelter  and 
opportunity  today.  The  noblest  part  of  our  inheritance  is  our 
knowledge  of  their  devotion  to  a  hope  which,  in  their  lifetime,  seemed 
almost  impossible  of  attainment. 


It  was  on  October  3,  1871,  that  the  Synod  of  the  Pacific,  of  the        PJ? 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States,  holding  its  session  in  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Oakland,  received  the  following  memor- 
ial signed  by  several  of  its  members: 

"Fathers  and  Brethren:  Inasmuch  as  the  Lord  has  called  us 
to  the  office  and  work  of  the  Ministry,  and  committed  to  our  charge 
important  trusts  touching  the  interests  of  His  Kingdom  on  this  coast; 
and  as  nothing  can  have  a  more  direct  bearing  on  the  interests  of  that 
Kingdom  than  the  raising  up  of  a  qualified  ministry;  and  as,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  the  time  seems  to  have  come  for  entering  on  that 
great  work,  your  memorialists,  under  a  deep  sense  of  their  own  in- 
sufficiency, and  with  entire  confidence  in  the  wisdom  of  the  Synod 
under  the  good  hand  of  God  upon  us,  would  respectfully  ask  the 
Synod  to  appoint  a  committee,  at  as  early  a  period  as  possible,  to 
consider  and  report  to  the  Synod,  during  its  present  session,  a  plan 
for  the  organization  of  a  Theological  Seminary,  such  as  the  present 
wants  and  future  interests  of  this  coast  demand.  And  your  memor- 
ialists, as  in  duty  bound,  will  ever  pray."  This  memorial  was  signed 
by  the  following  ministers :  W.  Alexander,  T.  M.  Cunningham,  W. 
A.  Scott,  H.  P.  Coon,  A.  Hemme,  S.  Woodbridge,  Geo.  Burrowes. 

It  came  as  the  climax  of  some  years  of  informal  discussion, 
desultory  in  the  early  stages,  but  gradually  shaped  into  more  definite 
form  during  the  weeks  that  preceded  the  meeting  of  Synod.  If  we 
would  rightly  grasp  the  significance  of  this  resolution  we  would  have 
to  go  back  to  the  beginnings  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  northern 
California.  It  is  said  that  when  Dr.  Scott,  in  1854,  first  sailed  in  at 
the  Golden  Gate,  and  looked  at  the  heights  of  land  which  rose  around 
him,  he  resolved  within  himself  that  some  day  he  would  see  a  school 
for  the  training  of  a  coast  ministry  planted  somewhere  upon  those 
heights.  This  ideal  he  never  lost.  Amid  the  thronging  duties  of 
his  unique  position  as  the  pastor  of  a  great  city  church  which  was 
located  in  a  new,  western  community,  he  still  held  steadily  to  his 
original  aim,  and  from  time  to  time  brought  it  to  the  attention  of  his 
brethren  in  the  church.  During  the  period  of  reconstruction  that 
came  after  the  Civil  War  he  found  an  associate  of  kindred  aspiration 


ppfJr  in  the  Reverend  William  Alexander,  D.  D.,  who,  in   1869,  after  a 

large  experience  in  educational  work  in  Wisconsin,  had  come  to  the 
pastorate  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  San  Jose.  Other  min- 
isters of  the  church  shared  their  view.  Thus  in  1 869  there  was  held 
in  San  Jose  a  called  meeting  of  the  Synod  to  discuss  the  subject  of 
the  founding  of  a  seminary.  Dr.  Burrowes  then  announced  his  in- 
tention of  presenting  his  library,  which  was  an  excellent  one,  "to 
such  an  institution,  whenever  it  should  be  established."  But  this 
was  a  community  where  all  things  had  to  be  built  from  the  founda- 
tions and  where  the  burdens  lay  heavily  upon  the  shoulders  of  a  few 
faithful  workers,  and  it  was  necessary  that  two  years  more  should 
be  allowed  to  pass  before  the  idea  finally  crystallized  into  action. 

Dr.  Alexander  was  at  this  time  thirty-nine  years  of  age,  the 
youngest  of  the  group  of  founders,  and  none  too  patient  with  people 
who  were  too  slow.  In  consultation  with  Dr.  Scott  he  drew  up  a 
plan  for  the  organization  of  a  seminary,  modeling  it  largely  after 
that  of  Princeton  Seminary,  which  was  his  own,  and  this  plan  he 
carried  in  his  pocket  to  the  Synod  of  1871.  In  the  meantime,  at 
the  September  meeting  of  the  Presbytery  of  San  Francisco,  Dr.  Scott 
had  made  a  presentation  of  the  matter,  whereupon  the  presbytery  had 
memoralized  the  Synod  to  take  such  immediate  action  as  might  be 
possible.  Thus  these  two  memorials  and  all  the  influences  that  were 
behind  them  were  concentrated  in  the  Synod  of  1871.  Dr.  Scott 
first  presented  the  report  of  the  Committee  on  Education,  in  which 
he  urged  the  immediate  need  of  the  establishment  of  a  seminary. 
Then  the  memorials  were  read.  Then  the  memorials  were  referred 
to  a  special  committee,  appointed  by  the  moderator,  and  consisting 
of  one  member  from  each  of  the  four  existing  presbyteries,  with  Dr. 
Scott  as  chairman.  Momentarily,  however,  the  scheme  seemed  to 
be  in  peril;  for  Dr.  Alexander,  either  because  he  was  so  young  a  man, 
or  so  new  a  man,  was  not  placed  upon  the  committee.  And  he  had 
the  plan  for  the  organization  of  the  seminary  in  his  pocket!  But 
the  embarrassment  was  shortly  smoothed  out  by  adding  the  names 
of  Dr.  Alexander  and  two  elders  to  the  membership  of  the  com- 
mittee. The  committee  immediately  retired  from  the  floor  of  Synod, 
Dr.  Alexander  laid  his  plan  before  his  associates,  who  at  once  adopted 
it,  and  within  half  an  hour  reported  it  back  to  the  Synod  for  action. 


The  reading  of  the  account  of  the  subsequent  discussion  in  the  ftS* 
Synod  is  extremely  interesting  as  throwing  light  upon  the  condition 
of  the  church  at  the  time.  The  immediate  establishment  of  a  theo- 
logical seminary  was  opposed  by  some  members  on  the  grounds, 
first,  that  there  were  no  adequate  facilities  at  that  time  in  northern 
California  for  the  preparation  of  young  men  in  arts  and  letters  with 
a  view  to  the  study  of  theology;  second,  that  there  were  no  students 
for  the  ministry  in  this  territory;  third,  that  there  were  no  buildings, 
nor  endowments,  nor  equipment,  for  the  barest  beginnings  of  a 
theological  seminary.  These  were  indeed  serious  considerations 
which  should  have  caused  prudent  men  to  draw  back.  But  men 
who  engage  in  pioneer  work  are  never  overprudent;  and  the  pro- 
moters of  the  idea  of  a  seminary  were  men  not  to  be  daunted.  To 
the  first  objection  they  answered  that  there  were  already  two  insti- 
tutions of  college  rank  in  northern  California,  the  City  College  on 
Union  Square  in  San  Francisco,  and  the  University  Mound  College 
just  outside  of  the  city.  There  were  also  four  academies  in  the  state 
under  the  control  of  ministers  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  To  the 
second  objection  it  was  answered  that  in  point  of  fact  there  were 
already  known  to  be  six  young  men  within  the  bounds  of  the  Synod 
who  were  intending  to  enter  the  ministry.  And  to  the  third  objec- 
tion it  was  urged  that  the  way  to  raise  money,  equipment  and  build- 
ings, was  to  begin  to  do  the  work  of  a  seminary.  And,  as  Dr.  Alex- 
ander put  it,  if  they  were  to  wait  twenty  years  before  beginning, 
there  would  still  be  found  men  to  say  that  the  action  was  premature. 
The  good  doctor  was  right.  And  it  is  well  that  the  world  is  not 
generally  governed  by  men  who  are  afraid  to  take  action  lest  it  may 
turn  out  to  have  been  premature.  In  the  end  the  Synod  adopted  the 
report  of  the  committee  unanimously,  elected  a  Board  of  Directors, 
and,  all  of  it  on  paper,  established  a  seminary.  The  men  who  thus 
launched  it  committed  themselves,  without  resources,  to  a  vast  under- 
taking. But  they  were  men  of  courage  and  vision,  and  such  men 
cannot  finally  fail.  For  most  of  the  familiar  history  of  that  time 
contained  in  this  brief  sketch,  I  am  indebted  to  Dr.  Alexander,  who 
was  still  alive  and  actively  engaged  in  his  professorial  duties  when  I 
entered  the  faculty  in  1905. 


J2f*  The  first  Board  of  Directors  held  their  first  meeting  in  a  room 

of  the  old  City  College,  on  November  7,  1871 .  Dr.  Scott  was  elected 
President,  and  Mr.  R.  J.  Trumbull,  an  elder  of  San  Rafael,  was 
elected  Secretary.  There  was  no  treasurer.  The  first  act  of  the  Board, 
after  it  was  constituted,  was  to  take  up  a  collection  to  buy  a  book  in 
which  to  keep  the  minutes.  But  the  Board  was  still  undaunted,  and 
went  right  on  with  everything  that  seemed  necessary  for  the  erection 
of  a  fully  organized  seminary.  It  elected  a  full  faculty  of  Professors. 
Dr.  Scott  was  elected  to  the  Chair  of  Logic  and  Systematic  Theology ; 
Dr.  Daniel  Warren  Poor,  then  pastor  of  First  Church,  Oakland,  was 
elected  to  the  Chair  of  Church  History  and  Church  Government ;  and 
Dr.  Alexander,  who  had  now  become  President  of  the  City  College, 
was  elected  to  the  Chair  of  Hellenistic  Greek  and  New  Testament 
Exegesis.  The  election  of  a  professor  of  Hebrew  Language  and 
Exegesis  was  deferred  to  the  second  meeting  of  the  Board,  which 
was  held  in  December,  when  Dr.  Burrowes  was  chosen.  It  is  doubt- 
ful whether  any  theological  seminary  that  has  been  started  in  this 
country  has  begun  its  work  with  a  stronger  or  more  effective  faculty. 
Each  of  the  professors  appointed  was  a  gentleman  and  a  scholar  of 
high  rank,  who  had  already  attained  recognition  throughout  the 
church. 

And  while  we  are  now  speaking  of  the  men  who  constituted  the 
first  inner  group  of  leaders  of  the  seminary,  it  seems  to  be  a  fitting 
place  in  which  to  introduce  some  characterization  of  them  and  their 
work. 

The  greatest  of  our  founders,  and  the  one  to  whom  through 
the  extended  history  of  fifty  years  we  owe  the  most,  is  unquestion- 
ably the  Reverend  William  Anderson  Scott,  D.  D.,  who  was  the  first 
to  think  of  and  plan  for  the  seminary,  the  first  President  of  the  Board 
of  Directors,  the  first  professor  elected,  the  first  President  of  the 
Faculty,  the  first  trustee,  the  first  to  occupy  an  endowed  chair.  Our 
subsequent  history  will  scarcely  be  comprehensible  unless  we  linger 
for  a  little  time  over  the  records  of  his  life,  and  endeavor  to  enter 
into  something  of  the  significance  of  this  high-souled  personality. 


He  was  a  typical  son  of  the  south,  born  at  Bedford  County, 
Tennessee,  on  January  31,  1813.  Like  so  many  of  the  other  illus- 
trious makers  of  our  seminary  history,  he  had  behind  him  the  gen- 
erations of  a  Scotch-Irish  conscience.  When  fifteen  years  of  age  he 
became  a  communicant  member  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian 
Church.  A  few  months  later  in  the  same  year  he  was  received  under 
the  care  of  the  Hopewell  Presbytery.  When  seventeen  he  was  li- 
censed to  preach.  And  at  the  same  age  he  became  a  chaplain  in  the 
Black  Hawk  War,  and  later  wrote  out  the  treaty  of  peace  which  was 
signed  by  Black  Hawk  and  brought  the  war  to  a  close.  One  of  the 
most  daring  stories  of  adventure  of  which  I  have  ever  heard  was  his 
voyage  in  a  canoe  down  six  hundred  miles  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
between  camps  of  hostile  savages,  who  held  both  banks,  without 
opportunity  of  cooking  food,  and  with  no  escort  other  than  that  of 
a  single  Indian  boy.  Such  was  the  temper  of  this  young  man  who 
began  his  ministry  as  an  evangelist  in  the  wilds  of  the  state  of  Ten- 
nessee. His  was  a  faith  that  from  the  very  beginning  glowed  with 
the  enthusiasm  of  love.  At  twenty  years  of  age  he  was  graduated 
from  Cumberland  College,  Kentucky,  and  one  year  later,  in  1834, 
he  completed  his  theological  studies  at  Princeton  Theological  Sem- 
inary. On  May  17,  1835,  he  was  ordained  by  the  presbytery  of 
Louisiana,  and  during  the  three  following  years  engaged  in  Home 
Mission  work.  Then  he  became  the  pastor  of  the  Hermitage  Church 
on  the  estate  of  General  Andrew  Jackson,  near  Nashville,  where  in 
the  days  of  retirement  of  the  great  general  and  president  he  enjoyed 
his  intimate  confidence.  During  the  years  1 840-3  he  was  pastor  of 
the  church  at  Tuscaloosa,  Alabama,  and  from  1843  to  1854  pastor 
of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  New  Orleans. 

With  the  excitement  of  the  gold  rush  in  1849,  the  admission  of 
the  State  of  California  into  the  Union  in  1850,  and  the  rise  of  the 
City  of  San  Francisco  into  a  place  of  commanding  importance,  there 
was  a  manifest  need  of  one  of  the  strongest  leaders  of  the  church  in 
this  strategic  position  to  give  coherence  and  power  to  the  Christian 
forces  that  were  emerging  in  the  community  and  to  introduce  the 
leaven  of  spiritual  beauty  into  a  life  where  materialism  and  the 
dreams  of  gold  threatened  to  exclude  every  high  aspiration.     Dr. 


p£fgeht  Scott  was  called  to  carry  this  heavy  responsibility.     He  became  the 

pastor  of  Calvary  Church,  which  was  organized  on  July  24,  1 854, 
with  sixty-three  members,  and  which  under  his  ministry  speedily 
grew  to  be  a  great  church.  It  was  located  at  the  very  center  of  the 
wild,  turbulent  life  of  the  new  city,  on  Bush  Street,  between  Mont- 
gomery and  Sansome  Streets.  Here  for  seven  years,  during  the 
most  formative  period  of  the  growth  of  the  city,  Dr.  Scott's  rich  voice 
rang  out  as  a  clarion  call  in  rebuke  of  sin  and  in  confession  of  God. 

When  the  Civil  War  came  and  rent  the  nation  into  two  con- 
flicting camps,  bringing  dissension  into  the  most  intimate  relations  of 
human  life,  Dr.  Scott,  as  a  native  of  the  south,  sympathized  with  the 
southern  side  in  the  struggle.  And  thus  he  found  himself  opposed 
by  some  of  the  very  men  with  whom  he  had  wrought  in  previous 
years.  The  Civil  War  is  long  past  now,  and  north  and  south  have 
fought  upon  the  same  side  since  then.  Americans  can  now  forget, 
and  they  ought  to  forget,  the  enmities  of  those  old  days.  North  and 
south  together  can  now  listen  while  a  patriot  speaks.  The  words 
which  I  am  about  to  quote  are  Dr.  Scott's,  written  on  the  margin  of 
one  of  his  books,  when  his  thought  had  been  kindled  by  the  thought 
of  the  author  whom  he  was  reading:  "First  let  me  live  for  my  God; 
next,  for  my  country;  then,  for  my  famliy;  and,  last  of  all,  for  my 
weak,  unworthy  self." 

With  the  period  of  his  brief  British  ministry  and  his  subsequent 
New  York  ministry  we  are  not  here  concerned.  Suffice  to  say  that 
Dr.  Scott  never  got  away  from  his  affection  for  California  and  that 
he  returned  to  San  Francisco  in  1870  to  found  St.  John's  Church,  of 
which  he  continued  to  be  pastor  until  his  death  in  1885. 

We  must  content  ourselves  with  merely  chronicling  some  of  his 
noteworthy  successes  achieved  in  other  fields,  which  were  of  aston- 
ishing variety.  For  three  years,  in  New  Orleans,  he  was  editor  of 
"The  Presbyterian,"  and,  in  San  Francisco,  he  founded  and  for  four 
years  edited  "The  Pacific  Expositor."  He  was  the  author  of  eleven 
published  books,  which  had  a  wide  circulation  throughout  the 
country.  He  took  a  leading  part  in  the  founding  of  both  the  City 
College  and  the  University  Mound  College,  which  gave  at  least  a 


flavor  of  higher  learning  to  the  rather  unruly  life  of  the  first  genera-  JJ5£ 
tion  of  San  Francisco.  In  days  when  travel  really  meant  strenuous 
labor  he  visited  the  countries  of  Europe  on  one  tour,  and  upon 
another  the  lands  of  Egypt,  Arabia  and  Palestine.  He  was  the  friend 
of  Agassiz,  and  made  suggestions  for  the  advancement  of  scientific 
knowledge.  He  was  a  great  ecclesiastical  leader,  and  when  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  met  in  his  former  home  in  New  Orleans,  in  1858,  he 
was  elected  Moderator. 

This  mere  recital  of  facts  would  be  incomplete  without  some 
further  characterization  of  the  personality  of  the  man.  I  believe  that 
the  secret  of  his  life  was  laid  bare  in  that  one  swift  note  upon  the 
margin  of  his  book,  to  which  I  have  already  referred.  In  personal 
appearance  he  was  tall  of  stature  and  dignified  in  his  bearing.  With 
his  dignity  there  was  blended  gentleness  and  geniality.  We  are  told 
that  he  was  a  very  approachable  man.  He  used  to  call  his  students 
his  "boys,"  and  this  too  in  days  when  most  professors  were  afraid  of 
such  unbending.  When  he  preached  his  eyes  glowed  and  his  face 
shone  with  his  joy  in  the  truth  of  Jesus.  Such  is  the  description  of 
the  chief  founder  of  the  seminary  as  I  have  gained  it  from  the  papers 
of  his  former  pupils  and  parishioners  and  from  the  conversation  of 
a  few  of  them.     He  labored,  and  we  have  entered  into  his  labors. 

There  were  dark  days  that  followed  the  launching  of  the  sem- 
inary, days  of  deferred  hope  that  made  sick  the  hearts  of  some  of  its 
friends.  But  Dr.  Scott  never  lost  faith  in  the  venture.  He  believed 
that  some  day  this  seminary  would  be  great,  and  he  died  in  this 
confidence. 

Next  in  importance  among  the  founders  we  must  reckon  Dr. 
Alexander,  who  was  Dr.  Scott's  junior  by  eighteen  years,  and  who 
possessed  an  enthusiasm  and  initiative  which  were  invaluable  quali- 
ties in  the  days  of  small  things.  At  first  he  combined  the  presidency 
of  the  City  College  with  the  Chair  of  New  Testament  Exegesis,  ob- 
taining his  support  from  the  former  position.  He  loved  the  sem- 
inary, and  although  through  long  years  there  were  no  funds  available 
for  his  remuneration,  he  still  held  steadfastly  to  his  place  of  service. 
In  the  Presbyterian  Encyclopedia  which  was  published  in  1888  it  is 


fgf  said  of  him:     "He  is  justly  regarded  as  one  of  the  ablest  men  in  the 

Presbyterian  Church,  and  for  accurate  and  profound  scholarship  oc- 
cupies the  highest  rank  upon  the  Pacific  Coast."  This  is  doubtless 
a  fair  summary  of  contemporary  opinion.  Dr.  Alexander  died  in 
1906,  having  served  the  seminary  continuously  for  thirty-five  years. 
And  during  most  of  this  time  he  was  a  soldier  campaigning  at  his 
own  charges. 

Dr.  Daniel  Warren  Poor  was  the  third  gentleman  to  be  elected 
to  the  first  faculty.  He  was  born,  as  the  son  of  a  missionary,  in 
Tillipally,  Ceylon,  in  1818,  was  graduated  from  Amherst  College  in 
1837,  and  from  Andover  Theological  Seminary  in  1840.  For  the 
first  six  years  of  his  ministry  he  was  a  Congregationalist,  for  forty- 
four  years  a  Presbyterian.  Of  these  years  he  spent  twenty  as  pastor 
of  the  High  Street  Church  of  Newark,  New  Jersey,  during  which  time 
he  had  an  important  part  in  the  promotion  of  the  German  Churches 
of  the  Newark  Presbytery,  and  the  organization  of  the  Bloomfield 
Theological  Seminary.  He  became  one  of  the  editors  of  the  English 
edition  of  Lange's  Commentary.  In  1 869  he  was  called  to  the  First 
Church  of  Oakland  and  in  1871  was  elected  Professor  of  Church 
History  in  the  seminary.  He  too  supported  himself  in  the  professor's 
chair  by  doing  the  work  of  a  pastor.  His  connection  with  the  sem- 
inary terminated  in  1876,  when  he  was  called  to  be  Corresponding 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education,  and  removed  to  Philadelphia. 

The  fourth  member  of  the  original  group  of  professors  was  the 
Reverend  George  Burrowes,  D.  D.,  who  was  born  near  Trenton, 
New  Jersey,  in  1811,  was  graduated  from  Princeton  College  in  1 832, 
and  from  Princeton  Seminary  in  1835.  After  a  pastorate  in  Mary- 
land, and  a  professorship  in  Lafayette  College,  and  another  pastorate 
in  Pennsylvania,  he  was  sent  out  by  the  Board  of  Education  of  the 
Old  School  branch  of  the  Church  to  inaugurate  some  educational 
work  in  California.  With  the  co-operation  of  Dr.  Scott  he  organized 
the  City  College,  which  occupied  a  site  at  the  southeast  corner  of 
Stockton  and  Geary  Streets.  The  early  progress  of  the  new  college 
was  remarkable,  but  at  the  end  of  six  years  of  labor  the  health  of  Dr. 
Burrowes  broke  under  the  strain,  and  he  had  to  return  to  the  east  to 


recuperate.  He  remained  in  the  east  three  years,  and  while  there  9SSm 
temporarily  resumed  a  professorship  in  Lafayette  College.  When, 
in  1 869,  he  came  back  to  San  Francisco,  he  found  that  the  University 
Mound  College  had  in  the  interval  of  these  years  risen  to  strength. 
Dr.  Burrowes  was  offered  the  presidency  of  this  new  college,  which 
he  accepted.  Then  in  1871  he  became  professor  of  Hebrew 
Language  and  Literature  in  the  seminary.  Dr.  Burrowes  was  a  man 
of  the  finest  culture,  a  scholar  and  a  Christian  gentleman.  His  col- 
lection of  Greek  and  Latin  literature  is  still  one  of  the  glories  of  our 
seminary  library.  He  published  three  volumes  and  was  a  frequent 
contributor  of  prose  and  poetry  to  periodical  literature.  He  had  the 
precision  of  the  scientist  combined  with  the  reverence  of  the  mystic. 
Altogether,  as  he  ripened  and  mellowed,  he  was  one  of  the  rarest 
and  most  beautiful  characters  which  have  blessed  the  ministry  of  the 
coast. 

What  makes  a  great  theological  seminary?  Certainly  it  is  not 
in  the  first  instance  endowments,  or  buildings,  or  equipment.  It  is 
men — the  men  who  teach  and  the  men  who  learn.  Estimated  in  the 
terms  of  the  power  of  its  faculty,  San  Francisco  Theological  Seminary 
was  born  great. 

But  except  for  its  professors  it  was  poor  in  everything.  Its 
classes  met  in  two  rooms  of  the  City  College,  provided  by  Dr. 
Alexander,  and  in  rooms  in  the  old  St.  John's  Church,  on  Post  Street, 
near  Mason,  which  had  been  fitted  up  by  Dr.  Scott.  It  had  no 
money.  Its  library  was  the  library  of  Dr.  Burrowes,  which,  in  ac- 
cordance with  his  promise,  he  now  donated  to  the  institution.  Sub- 
sequently the  library  of  Dr.  Scott  also  was  given. 

Thus  the  seminary  was  launched;  and  it  continued  to  operate 
without  much  change  for  the  first  five  years.  As  there  was  no 
financial  basis  for  the  work  one  of  the  earliest  efforts  was  to  secure 
funds.  Twice  was  a  financial  agent  appointed  to  do  this  work,  but 
the  commercial  depression  of  1873  made  these  attempts  largely 
nugatory. 

The  first  break  in  the  original  faculty  came  in  1876  with  the 
removal  of  Dr.  Poor.     Then  the  Reverend  James  Eells,  D.  D.,  pastor 


Twetve  oi  the  First  Church  of  Oakland,  was  called  to  be  his  successor.      But 

Dr.  Eells  made  as  the  condition  of  his  acceptance  such  a  redistribu- 
tion of  the  chairs  as  would  permit  him  to  teach  the  subjects  of  Apolo- 
getics and  Pastoral  Theology.  Dr.  Alexander  was  then  transferred 
to  the  Chair  of  Church  History,  and  Dr.  Burrowes  was  given  the 
double  department  of  Old  and  New  Testaments.  Such  was  the 
situation  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  year  of  the  history  of  the 
seminary. 

As  Dr.  Eells  now  comes  before  us  for  the  first  time,  and  as  he 
was  an  important  factor  in  the  early  development  of  our  seminary, 
we  should  pause  for  a  moment  over  his  name.  We  could  not  per- 
haps characterize  him  more  accurately  than  in  the  words  of  his  col- 
league, Dr.  Alexander,  spoken  on  the  occasion  of  the  twenty-fifth 
anniversary  of  the  seminary,  when  he  said:  "Dr.  Eells  was  a  model 
professor  of  Sacred  Rhetoric  and  Pastoral  Theology.  His  bearing 
and  his  influence  upon  the  students  were  very  fine>  and  his  character 
and  standing  in  the  church  at  large  made  him  a  valuable  accession  to 
any  seminary."     He  adds:  "He  never  lost  interest  in  this  seminary." 

In  the  long  roll  of  the  men  of  light  and  leading  with  which  the 
church  on  the  Pacific  Coast  has  been  gifted  the  name  of  Dr.  Eells 
holds  one  of  the  highest  places.  He  was  a  great  preacher,  full  of 
grace  and  strength.  In  1877  he  attained  the  highest  honor  of  our 
church  in  being  made  the  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly.  Un- 
happily for  our  seminary,  after  a  three  years*  tenure  of  his  chair  Dr. 
Eells  resigned  to  accept  a  similar  chair  in  Lane  Theological  Seminary. 
To  anticipate  somewhat,  we  are  told  that  even  at  the  time  of  his 
death  in  1 886  he  was  planning  to  return  to  the  coast  to  engage  in  a 
financial  campaign  in  behalf  of  our  seminary.  First  and  last  he  has 
left  upon  the  pages  of  the  records  of  his  generation  the  impression 
of  a  man  of  singular  attractiveness,  combining  in  his  personality  a 
fearless  devotion  to  duty  with  the  grace  of  winsomeness. 

In  the  meanwhile,  from  various  quarters,  the  institution  had 
received  by  the  close  of  1876  funds  amounting  to  the  sum  of 
$20,000.  The  first  $5,000  came  from  the  First  Church  of  Oakland 
and  the  balance  chiefly  as  the  result  of  representations  made  in  the 


east  by  Dr.  Eells.     The  trustees  had  begun  their  work  with  the  clear        flS*m 
understanding  that  under  no  circumstances  would  they  go  into  debt, 
with  all  its  hampering  inconveniences.       For  the  adoption  of  this 
sound  policy  the  seminary  body  was  especially  indebted  to  Dr.  Scott. 

But  the  need  of  a  settled  habitation  where  class-rooms,  library 
and  living  quarters  could  all  he  brought  together  had  now  become 
increasingly  manifest,  and  in  1877  the  Trustees  purchased  a  lot  at 
121  Haight  Street,  and  erected  a  building  there.  This  building  was 
afterwards  sold  to  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  for  use  as  a  Japanese 
Mission;  and  when  the  Japanese  center  shifted  to  another  part  of 
the  city,  it  was  sold  by  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  to  the  Young 
Men's  Hebrew  Association,  by  which  it  is  used  today.  The  special 
address  upon  the  occasion  of  the  opening  of  the  new  building  was 
given  by  the  Honorable  Henry  Huntley  Haight,  ex-governor  of  the 
State  of  California,  a  ruling  elder  and  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Directors,  who  was  a  splendid  example  of  the  Christian  layman.  The 
year  after  the  building  was  opened  he  passed  to  his  eternal  reward. 

The  limits  of  our  space  do  not  permit  us  to  dwell  upon  personal 
details  of  any  of  the  other  devoted  men  who  first  made  the  seminary 
possible,  and  then  made  it  great.  In  any  case  there  is  an  unwritten 
law  that  concerning  the  living  we  cannot  speak  so  freely  as  concern- 
ing the  dead. 

After  the  departure  of  Dr.  Eells  the  Reverend  John  Hemphill, 
then  the  young  pastor  of  Calvary  Church,  was  appointed  to  take  his 
place,  which  place  he  continued  to  fill  until  his  removal  to  Philadel- 
phia in  1882.  At  a  later  period  Dr.  Hemphill  again  give  his  services 
gratuitously  to  one  of  the  seminary  chairs,  and  for  this  generosity  has 
earned  an  honorable  place  in  our  memory. 

The  first  endowment  was  given  by  Mr.  R.  L.  Stuart,  of  New 
York,  in  1880,  and,  in  the  following  year,  increased  to  the  sum  of 
$50,000,  which  was  used  for  the  foundation  of  the  Chair  of  Syste- 
matic Theology.  Dr.  Scott,  as  was  his  due,  was  elected  the  first 
incumbent.  But  he  did  not  take  the  total  income  to  himself,  as  he 
would  have  been  justified  in  doing,  but  divided  it  with  his  colleagues, 
so  that  henceforth  each  of  them  received  some  three  or  four  hundred 
dollars  a  year  for  his  services. 


F^neen  At  the   seminary  Commencement   in   April,    1881,    there   was 

started  a  custom  which  has  continued  ever  since  of  having  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  Alumni  Association  make  an  address.  The  first  to 
give  this  address  was  the  Reverend  James  Curry,  D.  D.,  who  is  still 
with  us  to  cheer  us.  I  cannot  do  better  at  this  time  than  quote  from 
his  own  summary  of  his  address,  in  which  he  reviewed  the  progress 
of  the  first  decade.  "A  lot  and  suitable  building  had  been  secured 
for  the  work  of  the  Seminary,  one  chair  had  been  endowed,  and 
property  in  all  valued  at  $106,000  had  been  secured,  from  which  an 
annual  income  of  $3,000  was  obtained.  A  library  of  4,100  volumes, 
valued  at  $10,000,  had  been  secured,  while  twenty-four  students  had 
graduated  and  six  others  had  entered  the  ministry  without  graduat- 
ing. These  thirty  had  gone  to  preach  the  gospel  not  only  on  the 
Pacific  Coast,  but  also  in  the  eastern  states,  the  islands  of  the  sea, 
and  in  Europe." 

For  the  second  and  third  periods  of  our  history  we  can  touch 
only  the  high  places. 

The  chief  characteristic  of  the  second  period,  which  extends 
from  1881  to  1892,  was  the  steady  accession  of  new  friends  who 
brought  with  them  to  the  upbuilding  of  the  institution  new  capacities 
and  new  endowments.  During  this  period  some  of  the  early  pro- 
fessors laid  down  their  labors,  and  new  professors  took  them  up. 

The  first  death  in  the  faculty  was  that  of  Dr.  Scott,  who  passed 
from  earth  on  January  14,  1885,  believing  to  the  end  in  the  necessity 
and  worth  of  the  seminary  and  its  rising  influence.  Dr.  Scott  came 
close  to  a  time  of  great  expansion,  but  he  did  not  live  to  see  it.  In 
1885  the  Ladd  Chair  of  Practical  Theology  was  endowed  by  Mr. 
William  S.  Ladd,  of  Portland,  Oregon,  one  of  the  pioneers  of  his 
state,  a  man  of  immense  force  of  leadership,  and  a  Presbyterian  elder. 
In  1 886,  in  order  to  meet  the  conditions  of  the  gift  of  Mr.  Ladd,  the 
California  Chair  of  Church  History  was  endowed  by  a  concerted 
movement  among  the  churches  of  this  state.  Up  to  this  time  there 
had  been  no  installation  of  professors  because  there  had  been  no 
chairs  with  endowments  into  which  to  install  them.     But  henceforth 


professors  were  regularly  installed  in  office.      Owing  to  the  shortness        lytetn 
of  our  time  we  can  do  little  more  than  name  the  new  professors  who 
served  the  seminary  during  this  period. 

The  first  incumbent  of  the  Ladd  Chair  was  the  Reverend  Aaron 
Ladner  Lindsley,  D.  D.,  L.  L.  D.,  who  had  been  beloved  pastor  of 
the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Portland  for  eighteen  years.  Dr. 
Lindsley  was  a  great  founder  of  churches,  and  it  was  largely  due  to 
his  farsightedness  and  energetic  leadership  that  during  his  pastorate 
in  Portland  the  presbytery  of  fourteen  ministers  to  which  he  had 
come  had  developed  into  a  Synod  of  fifty-two  ministers.  He  was  a 
founder  of  Alaskan  missions,  for  which  he  paid  out  of  his  own  salary. 
Indeed,  he  touched  the  whole  life  of  the  northwest  at  many  points. 
He  entered  upon  his  duties  in  the  seminary  in  1886  and,  while  on  a 
visit  to  his  old  home  in  Portland,  died  in  the  summer  of  1 89 1 . 

The  Reverend  Thomas  Fraser,  D.  D.,  was  born  in  Scotland  and 
graduated  from  Princeton  Theological  Seminary.  He  came  to  Cal- 
ifornia in  1859  and  did  valiant  duty  in  the  Home  Mission  field  of 
California  for  twenty-eight  years,  when  he  was  elected  to  the  Chair 
of  Systematic  Theology  in  the  seminary.  He  served  the  seminary 
for  five  years  and  then  retired  from  the  professorship  to  do  evan- 
gelistic work.  Dr.  Fraser  has  the  distinction  of  having  founded 
more  Presbyterian  churches,  or,  for  that  matter,  more  Protestant 
churches,  than  any  other  man  in  the  history  of  this  coast.  As  far  as 
the  records  show,  he  established  one  hundred  and  twelve  new 
churches. 

The  Reverend  Robert  Mackenzie,  D.  D.,  L.  L.  D.,  became  a  pro- 
fessor in  the  seminary  in  1889,  upon  the  foundation  of  the  Mont- 
gomery Chair,  of  which  we  shall  speak  later.  He  was  one  of  the 
most  famous  of  the  preachers  and  ecclesiastical  leaders  of  the  whole 
history  of  the  coast.  He  had  a  rare  gift  of  persuasive  eloquence  and 
a  wide  influence  in  the  city  of  San  Francisco  among  men  who  were 
not  generally  identified  with  churches.  In  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church,  of  which  he  was  pastor,  he  gathered  about  him  a  great  con- 
gregation. Among  those  who  were  attracted  to  his  ministry  was 
Mr.   Alexander  Montgomery,   who   subsequently  became   the   chief 


sifuen  benefactor  of  the  seminary.      Upon  Mr.  Montgomery's  nomination 

Dr.  Mackenzie  was  elected  the  first  incumbent  of  the  Montgomery 
Chair  of  Apologetics  and  Missions.  Dr.  Mackenzie  removed  to 
New  York  in  1901  to  become  the  pastor  of  Rutgers  Church.  He 
returned  to  the  seminary  as  president  in  1 909,  but  after  a  few  months 
of  occupancy  of  the  office  resigned  to  accept  the  secretaryship  of  the 
Board  of  Colleges. 

The  Reverend  Thomas  Franklin  Day,  D.  D.,  was  elected  in  1891 
as  assistant  and  successor  to  Dr.  Burrowes  in  the  Chair  of  Greek  and 
Hebrew  Exegesis.  Previous  to  his  election  he  had  been  a  missionary 
in  Utah,  where  for  ten  years  he  was  a  leader  in  the  struggle  against 
Mormonism.  With  the  separation  of  the  chairs  of  Greek  and 
Hebrew  Exegesis  in  1896,  Dr.  Day  chose  the  Old  Testament  depart- 
ment as  his  particular  field,  and  in  this  he  continued  until  1911, 
when  he  retired  from  the  active  work  of  teaching.  Dr.  Day  is  still 
with  us,  so  that  concerning  him,  as  well  as  others  whose  names  we 
mention,  we  cannot  speak  as  freely  as  we  otherwise  might.  But  in 
view  of  his  long  service  to  our  seminary,  in  fair  days  and  dark,  it  is 
fitting  that  we  should  here  pay  a  modest  tribute  to  his  worth.  He 
has  left  behind  him  a  tradition  of  the  fearless  pursuit  of  truth,  and  of 
pure  enthusiasm  for  high  ideals. 

The  Reverend  Henry  Colin  Minton,  D.  D.,  L.  L.  D.,  succeeded 
Dr.  Fraser  in  the  Chair  of  Systematic  Theology  in  1892,  and  im- 
mediately became  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  brilliant  professors 
of  the  entire  church.  He  was  honored  by  his  brethren  by  being 
elected  to  almost  every  office  that  lay  within  the  gift  of  the  Church. 
In  1901  he  became  the  Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly.  Shortly 
after  this  event  he  resigned  from  his  chair  to  accept  the  pastorate  of 
First  Church  of  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  He  was  another  of  the  giants 
who  have  attained  their  full  stature  in  the  service  of  this  seminary. 
He  too  is  spending  the  evening  of  his  days  in  the  circle  of  old  friends 
around  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco. 

Mr.  Charles  Gurdon  Buck  is  the  one  lay  member  of  our  faculty. 
While  he  has  not  held  a  chair,  he  has  held  an  endowed  instructorship 
in  Vocal  Culture  and  Sacred  Music.     As  he  was  elected  in  1890  he 


is  now  rounding  out  a  period  of  thirty-one  years  of  consecutive  sSSmum 
service  of  our  seminary.  His  has  been  the  task  of  teaching  our 
young  men  to  speak  out,  fearless  and  undismayed,  so  that  even  the 
deaf  may  hear  their  voices.  The  importance  of  this  training  for  the 
work  of  preaching  is  so  great  and  so  obvious  that  I  do  not  need  to 
touch  up  this  point  further. 

It  had  always  been  recognized  by  the  members  of  the  seminary 
body  that  the  location  and  building  on  Haight  Street  could  be  only  a 
temporary  home.  And  now  the  question  of  a  permanent  location 
thrust  itself  upon  the  attention  of  the  Board  of  Directors.  Various 
possible  locations  in  the  city  and  elsewhere  were  discussed,  and 
finally  the  judgment  of  the  Directors  was  determined  by  the  offer  of 
Mr.  Arthur  W.  Foster,  of  San  Rafael,  of  the  site  upon  which  the 
seminary  now  stands.     This  was  in   1 89 1 . 

In  the  meantime,  partly  through  the  influence  of  Dr.  Mackenzie, 
and  partly  through  that  of  Mr.  Foster,  the  attention  of  Mr.  Mont- 
gomery was  directed  to  the  seminary  as  a  place  where  a  Christian 
capitalist,  who  desired  to  get  the  largest  possible  returns  on  his  in- 
vestment, might  with  advantage  employ  a  large  amount  of  money. 
Mr.  Montgomery  soon  afterwards  became  our  benefactor  to  the  sum 
of  $250,000,  of  which  part  was  expended  upon  the  buildings  now 
standing  on  the  top  of  the  mound,  part  for  the  endowment  of  the 
Montgomery  Chair  of  Apologetics  and  Missions,  another  part  for 
the  endowment  of  the  Gray  Chair  of  Hebrew  Exegesis  and  Old 
Testament  Literature,  and  the  remainder  upon  houses  for  the  pro- 
fessors and  other  needs.  Later  he  gave  money  for  the  erection  of 
the  Montgomery  Memorial  Chapel  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  where  his 
earthly  remains  lie  buried.  It  was  Mr.  Montgomery's  desire,  in 
bestowing  his  gifts,  to  leave  behind  him  a  foundation  which  would 
endure  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  uplift  of  men  as  long  as  the 
State  of  California  should  continue  in  being.  And  who  can  say  that 
he  chose  amiss?  In  these  beautiful  buildings  which  rise  on  their 
own  eminence  in  the  midst  of  the  great  hills  he  has  left  an  instru- 
ment for  the  propagation  of  his  faith  and  the  multiplying  of  his  con- 
victions unto  the  end  of  the  world. 


Eighteen  Of  Mr.  Foster,  who  was  so  closely  associated  with  both  Dr. 

Scott  and  Mr.  Montgomery,  we  cannot  now  speak  particularly.  He 
is  still  with  us,  in  the  fullness  of  his  vigor.  Suffice  to  say  that  he 
was  first  the  parishioner  and  friend,  and  afterwards  the  son-in-law  of 
Dr.  Scott,  sharing  his  vision  of  this  place;  and  he  was  the  intimate 
confident  of  Mr.  Montgomery.  And  thus  the  succession  has  con- 
tinued. 

Another  name  of  distinction  in  this  period  was  that  of  the 
Reverend  Arthur  Crosby,  D.  D.,  of  San  Rafael,  who  was  active  in 
the  raising  of  endowment  in  the  east.  Altogether  he  raised  some 
$44,000,  of  which  $30,000  was  set  apart  by  the  Directors  in  1890 
for  the  endowment  of  the  Severin  Instructorship  in  Sacred  Music 
and  Vocal  Culture. 

Thus  closes  the  second  decade,  and  the  second  period,  of  our 
history. 

The  third  period  covers  almost  the  whole  of  the  past  three  de- 
cades, and  it  must  be  briefly  told.  It  begins  with  the  dedication  of 
the  new  seminary  buildings  in  San  Anselmo,  on  September  21,1 892, 
and  reaches  down  to  the  present  time. 

The  first  part  of  this  period  was  largely  taken  up  with  the  prob- 
lems of  readjustment  which  were  projected  by  the  comparatively  large 
increase  in  the  resources  of  the  seminary.  It  is  small  wonder  that 
some  mistakes  were  made.  For  the  whole  task  was  new,  and,  in  this 
western  world,  without  precedents  which  might  offer  guidance. 
What  were  the  relations  of  professors  one  to  another,  and  to  the 
church  at  large?  Should  a  professor  be  permitted  to  be  a  pastor 
also?  What  were  the  functions  of  faculty?  Could  the  work  of  the 
institution  best  be  conducted  with,  or  without,  a  president?  What 
were  the  relations  of  the  seminary  to  the  Synod  of  California?  And 
to  the  General  Assembly?  Most  of  these  questions  have  been  thor- 
oughly answered  by  this  time,  but  they  demanded  a  good  deal  of 
discussion  before  there  was  anything  like  unanimity  in  the  answers. 

The  members  of  the  seminary  being  once  settled  in  their  new 
buildings  there  was  a  quiet  and  almost  unvarying  routine  for  the 
following  ten  years.  The  number  of  students  in  attendance  was 
generally  about  twenty-five. 


We  have  already  referred  to  the  death  of  Dr.  Lindsley,  which        /&t«n 
occurred  in  1 89 1 .     The  following  year  the  Board  of  Directors  chose 
as  his  successor  in  the  Ladd  Chair  the  Reverend  Warren  Hall  Landon, 

D.  D.,  who  is  now  the  President  of  the  Seminary.  Dr.  Landon  has 
thus  given  to  the  institution  twenty-nine  years  of  service,  eighteen 
as  professor,  and  eleven  as  president.  His  has  been  a  constantly 
irenical  influence,  smoothing  the  rough  places  of  the  new  road  and 
bringing  its  discords  into  harmony. 

Another  new  professor  who  entered  the  seminary  during  this 
period  was  the  Reverend  John  Henry  Kerr,  D.  D.,  who  in  1895  was 
called  to  the  Chair  of  Greek  Exegesis  and  New  Testament  Literature, 
and  who  rendered  service  of  the  finest  quality  for  the  space  of  seven 
years,  when  he  was  called  to  New  York  to  become  secretary  of  the 
American  Tract  Society.  Dr.  Kerr's  incumbency  was  during  a  time 
of  reaction  in  financial  matters,  when  some  of  the  investments  of 
seminary  funds  became  non-productive,  and  the  financial  depression 
of  1 900  held  the  country  in  its  grip.  All  the  chairs  of  the  seminary 
suffered  in  some  degree,  but  Dr.  Kerr's  chair  lost  its  entire  support. 
During  the  last  year  of  his  work  in  San  Anselmo  he  supported  him- 
self by  acting  as  pastor  of  Trinity  Church,  San  Francisco. 

In  many  respects  the  year  1 902  marks  the  lowest  ebb  of  depres- 
sion in  our  history.  Professors  Mackenzie,  Minton  and  Kerr  were 
all  gone.  Professors  Alexander  and  Day  received  only  half  of  their 
normal  salaries.  A  large  part  of  the  endowments  ceased  to  yield 
any  income.  The  students  who  should  have  constituted  the  senior 
class  of  1903,  being  fearful  that  there  would  be  no  adequate  instruc- 
tion, left  the  institution  to  take  their  final  year  in  Princeton  Seminary. 
One  sole  student  was  left  in  the  class  of  this  year,  the  Reverend  Alvin 

E.  Magary,  Ph.D.,  D.  D.,  now  of  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa.  His  subse- 
quent career  of  distinction  shows  that  his  loyalty  to  a  desperate  cause 
was  no  error.  But  in  this  hour  of  disheartenment  it  was  time  for 
things  to  begin  to  amend. 

Dr.  Mackenzie  in  going  east  still  retained  his  incumbency  of 
the  Montgomery  Chair,  whereby  he  was  able  to  make  over  the  in- 
come of  this  chair  to  relieve  the  necessities  elsewhere,  his  work  being 


PTwenty  distributed  among  the  other  professors.     At  this  time  Mr.  Charles 

A.  Laton  was  appointed  Business  Manager  of  the  Seminary,  a  posi- 
tion which  he  is  still  filling  with  great  efficiency.  And  therefore  it 
is  impossible  for  us  to  say  much  concerning  him.  But  we  may  state 
that  he,  together  with  our  splendid  Finance  Committee,  has  been 
able,  little  by  little,  to  withdraw  the  funds  from  many  of  the  non- 
productive investments  and  turn  them  into  others  which  sustain  our 
work.  The  services  of  Mr.  Laton  have  been  of  the  highest  value 
to  us. 

One  of  the  most  signal  of  these  services  was  the  establishment 
of  the  General  Fund,  which  takes  care  of  the  maintenance  of  our 
buildings  and  of  all  charges  which  lie  outside  of  any  of  the  specified 
endowments.  We  must  now  revert  for  a  moment  to  an  earlier  gift 
to  which  we  have  made  no  reference  as  yet,  the  bequest  of  Mr.  J.  D. 
Thompson  of  a  lot  and  business  building  on  California  Street,  which 
was  sold  by  Mr.  Laton  in  1904  for  more  than  $145,000.  The 
amount  of  this  sale  was  henceforth  set  aside  as  a  General  Fund  and 
has  since  been  used  to  cover  unforeseen  and  unusual  expenses  of 
the  most  varied  kind. 

We  must  now  return  to  the  emergency  of  the  depleted  faculty. 
Evidently  unless  the  seminary  were  to  close  its  doors,  as  some  of  its 
friends  actually  proposed,  there  were  needed  new  professors.  In 
August,  1902,  the  Reverend  Hugh  Watts  Gilchrist,  D.  D.,  pastor  of 
Westminster  Church,  Seattle,  was  elected  Instructor  in  New  Testa- 
ment Greek,  and  at  once  entered  upon  his  duties.  He  remained  with 
the  seminary  only  three  years,  when  other  work  claimed  him,  but 
these  years  tided  the  seminary  over  the  most  serious  difficulties  it 
had  encountered  since  the  earliest  days  of  struggle.  In  October, 
1903,  the  Reverend  John  S.  Mcintosh,  D.  D.,  was  elected  to  the 
Stuart  Chair,  and  at  once  took  office.  Dr.  Mcintosh  was  a  courtly 
gentleman  and  a  distinguished  scholar.  Earlier  in  his  ministry  he 
had  been  the  pastor  of  the  May  Street  Church  of  Belfast,  and  after- 
wards of  the  Second  Church  of  Philadelphia.  Despite  his  years  he 
threw  himself  into  all  the  interests  of  the  church  upon  the  coast  with 
the  enthusiasm  and  vigor  of  a  young  soldier  engaging  in  his  first 
campaign.     He  travelled  incessantly  up  and  down  the  coast,  preach- 


ing  and  lecturing,  visiting  synods  and  colleges,  holding  interviews  /w«/y,«, 
with  young  men  whom  he  was  seeking  to  influence  to  enter  the  min- 
istry, and  with  older  men  whom  he  was  seeking  to  persuade  to  ex- 
tend financial  aid.  He  made  friends  wherever  he  went.  And  for 
long  afterwards  the  seminary  reaped  the  harvest  he  had  sown.  One 
year  after  he  had  joined  the  faculty  he  was  elected  President  of  the 
Seminary,  which  was  then  a  new  office  and  something  in  the  nature 
of  an  experiment.  Would  not  the  appointment  of  a  President  secure 
a  more  definite  assignment  of  responsibility  for  needed  action,  and 
a  more  unified  policy  of  administration?  It  is  sufficient  for  us  to 
say  here  that  Dr.  Mcintosh's  presidency  was  of  such  a  character  that 
no  one  ever  again  had  the  temerity  to  question  whether  such  an  ap- 
pointment could  be  otherwise  than  advantageous.  Unhappily  for 
us  Dr.  Mcintosh  died  in  January,  1906,  after  he  had  been  with  our 
seminary  only  three  and  a  half  years.  But  his  untiring  labors  helped 
mightily  to  save  a  dangerous  day. 

The  third  member  of  faculty  drawn  in  by  the  emergency  of 
1 903  was  the  Reverend  Charles  Gordon  Paterson,  a  recent  graduate 
of  the  seminary,  and  a  Home  Missionary.  He  entered  the  faculty 
as  assistant  to  Dr.  Alexander,  whose  health  was  failing;  and  after 
Dr.  Alexander's  death  in  1 906  he  was  elected  to  the  California  Chair 
of  Church  History.  Dr.  Paterson  was  strong  and  true  and  tender. 
He  made  his  influence  felt  in  college  circles  far  beyond  the  limits  of 
his  chair.  There  has  never  been  a  leader  of  student  life  in  this  state 
who  has  made  a  deeper  impression  upon  a  greater  number  of  young 
men,  or  has  earned  from  them  a  stronger  affection.  His  might  have 
been  called  a  pastoral  professorate.  He  himself  always  thought  that 
his  true  place  in  the  ministry  was  in  the  pastorate,  and  thus  when  a 
call  came  to  him  in  1 9 1 4  to  become  associate  pastor  with  Dr.  Charles 
R.  Gordon,  in  St.  Stephen's  Church,  Winnipeg,  he  did  not  hesitate 
about  his  acceptance.  Five  years  after  his  departure  from  us  he  laid 
aside  all  earthly  work  for  a  place  in  the  service  of  the  land  of  light. 
He  too  wrought  bravely  in  the  dark  days. 

It  was  in  1905  that  I,  then  a  very  young  man  to  be  chosen  to 
such  a  place,  entered  the  faculty  of  the  seminary  as  professor  of  New 
Testament  Interpretation,  so  that  for  our  recent  history  I  speak  as  a 


Twtnty-two     participant.      It  has  been  my  high  privilege  to  know  intimately  many 
of  the  men  whom  I  have  named  to-night. 

At  the  time  of  my  arrival  the  seminary  was  already  emerging 
from  some  of  the  shadows  of  the  previous  five  years.  But  the  year 
1906  was  another  dark  year  for  us.  Dr.  Mcintosh  died  in  January, 
the  San  Francisco  earthquake  and  fire  came  in  April,  Dr.  Alexander 
died  in  June.  For  a  little  time  we  scarcely  knew  where  we  were. 
Nevertheless,  without  delay,  we  called  a  new  professor  to  the  work 
laid  down  by  Dr.  Mcintosh.  I  can  remember  that  in  the  pressing 
emergency  I  was  made  a  member  of  the  committee  to  interview  Dr. 
Moore,  then  a  pastor  in  Omaha,  to  ascertain  whether  we  might  pre- 
sent his  name  for  the  vacant  chair.  Dr.  Moore  was  a  brave  man, 
and  he  came.  He  was  also  a  far-sighted  man  who  knew  that  in  the 
position  which  this  seminary  occupies  it  would  take  more  than 
another  earthquake  to  send  it  beneath  the  ground. 

Again  the  authorities  of  the  seminary,  rising  with  characteristic 
buoyancy  to  meet  the  new  disaster,  restored  the  damaged  buildings, 
and  reached  out  for  new  opportunities  of  service.  The  things  which 
could  be  shaken  had  been  removed,  in  order  that  the  things  which 
could  not  be  shaken  might  come  to  their  full  greatness. 

The  presidency  of  Dr.  Landon  began  in  1910,  and  this  date 
marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  constructive  era  in  our  history.  We 
had  discovered  by  this  time  that  we  needed  a  new  charter,  and  that 
for  many  reasons.  Under  the  old  charter  we  possessed  no  power  to 
confer  degrees  or  to  bestow  academic  honors.  We  could  not,  strictly 
speaking,  elect  a  president,  because  the  constitution  of  the  seminary 
knew  no  such  office.  The  functions  of  faculty  were  not  clearly  de- 
fined, and  our  seminary  was  in  an  anomalous  position  among  the 
seminaries  of  the  church  in  being  under  the  double  control  of  the 
Synod  of  California  and  the  General  Assembly.  The  Assembly  had 
earlier  passed  a  resolution  requesting  all  the  seminaries  to  place 
themselves  directly  under  its  authority,  and  thus  ours  was  the  last  to 
come  into  line.  The  proposed  new  plan  of  the  seminary  was  un- 
animously adopted  by  the  Synod  of  California  at  its  meeting  in 
Santa  Rosa  in  1913,  and  was  shortly  afterwards  enacted  into  law  by 


• ,  •    


the  legislature  of  the  State  of  California.  Henceforth  the  seminary  %?«*./*», 
was  upon  the  main  line,  with  orders  to  go  full  steam  ahead.  In  pass- 
ing we  should  note  some  of  the  changes  of  name  which  were  made 
by  the  new  charter.  The  word  "the"  was  dropped  from  the  cor- 
porate title,  which  now  reads  "San  Francisco  Theological  Seminary." 
The  "Board  of  Directors"  was  now  called  the  "Board  of  Trustees," 
and  the  former  "Trustees"  now  became  the  "Finance  Committee." 

Let  us  now  turn  our  attention  for  a  moment  to  the  conditions 
of  today.  It  is  a  day  of  new  friends,  new  resources  and  new  op- 
portunities. 

Prominent  among  our  new  friends  is  Mr.  Robert  Dollar,  the 
President  of  our  Board  of  Trustees,  and  a  leader  in  every  good  work 
upon  the  Pacific  Coast.  Of  him  too  we  cannot  speak  too  freely, 
because  he  is  one  of  the  very  active  forces  in  the  life  of  the  present. 
Happily  we  do  not  need  to  speak,  for  all  men  know  something  of  his 
works.  He  has  endowed  two  chairs,  the  Robert  Dollar  Chair  of  New 
Testament  Interpretation,  and  the  Margaret  Dollar  Chair  of  Christian 
Sociology.  He  has  also  been  the  constant  benefactor  of  our  library 
for  several  years.  Mr.  Dollar,  like  Mr.  Montgomery,  has  felt  that 
in  the  seminary  there  is  an  opportunity  for  the  sound  investment  of 
money. 

Our  faculty  too  contains  new  men  who,  when  they  came  to 
us,  were  already  of  tried  and  proven  worth  in  other  fields.  In  1903 
the  Reverend  William  Henry  Oxtoby,  D.  D.,  was  called  from  the 
historic  Tabernacle  Church  of  Philadelphia  to  the  Gray  Chair  of 
Hebrew  Exegesis  and  Old  Testament  Literature.  In  1915  the  Rev- 
erend Remsen  DuBois  Bird,  D.  D.,  was  called  from  the  faculty  of 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  to  the  California  Chair  of  Church 
History.  In  1920  the  Reverend  Lynn  Townsend  White,  D.  D.,  was 
called  from  the  pulpit  of  First  Church,  San  Rafael,  to  be  the  first  in- 
cumbent of  the  newly  founded  Margaret  Dollar  Chair  of  Christian 
Sociology,  with  which  also  he  combines  the  Librarianship.  And  in 
the  same  year  the  Reverend  Edwin  Forrest  Hallenbeck,  D.  D.,  was 


rZintyfour  called  from  the  First  Church  of  San  Diego  to  the  Ladd  Chair  of  Prac- 
tical Theology.  These  names,  together  with  those  which  have  been 
previously  mentioned,  complete  the  list  of  our  permanent  faculty 
of  today. 

For  longer  or  shorter  periods  the  seminary  has  also  had  the 
benefits  of  the  services  of  other  able  men,  notably  the  Reverend 
William  Martin,  M.  A.,  who  from  1910  to  1914  occupied  the  Mont- 
gomery Chair,  and  who  subsequently  held  the  pastorate  of  the  Yoko- 
hama Union  Church,  in  which  he  died  in  1920;  and  the  Reverend 
Hugh  Henry  Bell,  D.  D.,  who  occupied  the  Ladd  Chair  from  1916 
to  1919  and  is  now  the  esteemed  pastor  of  First  Church  of  Fresno. 

Among  the  new  departures  of  recent  years  has  been  the  ad- 
mission of  women  to  the  seminary  on  equal  terms  with  men.  There 
was  manifest  need  of  such  an  action,  because  women  are  now  being 
called  to  ever  enlarging  spheres  of  service  both  as  foreign  mission- 
aries and  as  parish  workers  in  the  homeland.  So  far  the  results  of 
this  provision  have  been  wholly  good. 

The  list  of  foreign  missionaries  sent  forth  from  the  company  of 
our  graduates  has  been  remarkable.  There  are  men  of  our  seminary 
engaged  in  evangelistic  or  educational  work  in  every  foreign  mission 
field  of  our  church. 

And  when  we  turn  back  to  America  we  find  that  our  graduates 
have  wrought  in  every  region  of  the  Pacific  Coast  from  the  farthest 
point  northward  in  Alaska  to  the  most  southerly  outposts  of  Cal- 
ifornia; and  they  are  scattered  eastward  over  the  continent.  They 
have  ministered  to  miners,  fishermen  and  cowboys,  to  Indians  and 
Eskimos.  They  have  preached  in  beautiful  churches  in  great  cities, 
and  in  tents  thrown  down  in  the  midst  of  the  sagebrush  of  the  desert. 
There  are  Chinese,  Japanese  and  Korean  students  who  preach  the 
gospel  to  their  compatriots  in  every  one  of  the  important  communi- 
ties of  Orientals  upon  the  coast. 

And  among  the  things  that  cheer  us  most  today  is  the  fact  that 
the  children  and  grandchildren  of  our  founders  are  our  friends.  The 
succession  still  holds  true  to  type. 


<    »    > 


And  what  of  the  future?      Here  voice  and  pen  fail  us.      It  is  so        Pf&ntyfive 
easy  to  prophesy;  and  also  so  dangerous.     Nevertheless  we  can,  and 
should,  project  our  vision  into  the  future,   that  we  may  the  more 
steadily  consider  the  things  towards  which  we  move. 

Just  as  surely  as  the  Pacific  Ocean  shall  be  the  scene  of  gigantic 
efforts  and  adjustments  in  the  international  life  of  the  next  fifty 
years,  so  surely  does  our  seminary  occupy  a  place  of  strategic  im- 
portance in  the  religious  movements  of  the  coming  age.  In  the  set- 
tlement of  the  problems  of  the  relations  between  the  Orient  and  the 
Occident  only  Christianity  can  speak  the  final  word.  It  is  ours  to 
train  the  men  who  shall  make  the  lasting  peace. 

We  face  the  future  unafraid  because  we  are  loyal,  with  a  pas- 
sionate devotion,  to  the  heritage  of  faith  and  truth  which  we  have 
received  from  the  fathers  of  this  institution.  We  look  upon  this  in- 
heritance as  a  precious  trust,  not  to  be  dispelled  and  impaired  through 
our  ignorance  or  misuse,  but  as  something  to  be  further  enriched 
and  ennobled  through  our  experience.  The  God  of  Doctors  Scott, 
Alexander,  Poor  and  Burrowes  is  our  God.  San  Francisco  Theolog- 
ical Seminary  will  never  go  away  from  Jesus  Christ.  It  will  welcome 
all  new  light,  from  whatever  source  it  may  arise,  in  accordance  with 
our  historic  Presbyterian  position;  but  it  is  very  certain  that  such 
light  can  only  reveal  Jesus  in  a  fuller  beauty  than  we  have  seen 
before. 

In  humble  thanksgiving  to  God  for  His  wonderful  guidance 
through  the .  half-century  of  the  past,  in  trustful  dependence  upon 
His  leading  in  the  present  hour,  with  an  unfeigned  eagerness  to 
serve  all  our  brethren  who  will  accept  of  service  from  our  hands, 
with  no  hate  but  the  hate  of  hate,  and  no  scorn  but  the  scorn  of 
scorn,  with  a  great  charity  for  all  mankind,  we  face  the  long  future 
that  stretches  out  before  us,  and  move  forward  unafraid. 


Mifl 


E^VUBR«S 


Mill!  Mil  M 


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4G332U 


UNIVERSITY  OP  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


